THE DISCONNECTION NOTE ====================== Inside the relay cabinet is a folded maintenance sheet. The first side lists failures: clocks drifting to 03:13, identical carriers appearing at separate nodes, and operators hearing themselves speak before they had spoken. The second side contains the sentence written in block capitals: WE DID NOT FAIL. WE DISCONNECTED. The operators cut the copper bus by hand. They removed the relay that would have restored Node 19 automatically. A final note says: Better lost than joined. No bodies are listed. An unauthorized field-transfer attempt is logged as DESTINATION UNKNOWN.